This invention relates to a D-ring for a seatbelt.
A vehicle restraint system typically comprises a seatbelt anchored at various points to a vehicle body. The seatbelt or seatbelt web may have both a lap belt portion and a shoulder belt portion and may retract into a seatbelt retractor that takes up the slack of the seatbelt. The seatbelt has an anchoring point on the vehicle body above the anticipated height of a shoulder of a seated vehicle occupant. The anchoring point serves to support the shoulder belt portion of the seatbelt across the vehicle occupant. At this anchoring point, the seatbelt extends from the seatbelt retractor through a support loop, known as a D-ring, anchored above the seated vehicle occupant. The D-ring acts as a web guide for the seatbelt web and typically has a slot to receive the seat belt web.
The D-ring may cause binding of the seatbelt, reducing the ease of extension and retraction of the seatbelt relative to the seatbelt retractor. Due to binding of the seatbelt at this anchoring point, the seatbelt retractor requires additional mechanisms to reduce the level of effort required to extend and retract the seatbelt. For example, the seatbelt retractor may require a large spring motor. These additional mechanisms introduce significant expense to the overall cost of the vehicle restraint system. Accordingly, it would be desirable to reduce the binding of the seatbelt at this anchoring point.
Applicant has discovered that the binding of the seatbelt results from an inability of the D-ring to move freely with the shoulder belt portion of the seatbelt. To address this problem, Applicant has introduced a gap between the D-ring and the bolt anchoring the D-ring to the vehicle. This gap permits the D-ring to move more freely with the seatbelt. This feature, however, has a drawback. The gap between the D-ring and the bolt allows the D-ring to rattle. This rattling of a safety component of the vehicle is unpleasant as well as potentially disconcerting to the vehicle occupant.
A need therefore exists for an improved D-ring that offers more freedom of movement without any rattle.